You'll recall that Charles Manson's deranged "philosophy" was based on a warped admixture of Revelations 9 and the Beatles' White Album, particularly the tracks Blackbird, Helter Skelter, Piggies, Revolution and Revolution #9.

It was Manson's belief that the Beatles were communicating with him across the Atlantic through this and other albums, encouraging him to record his own songs.

Manson's belief in the coming Black Vs White race war ("Helter Skelter") was based on his warped interpretation of the White Album.

The words PIG, PIGGIES, RISE and HEALTER (sic) SKELTER were daubed on the walls of the Tate/LaBianca residences in the victims' own blood.

The trial jury requested a phonograph and a copy of the White Album as they were deliberating in the jury room on their verdicts.

George Harrison refused Vincent Bugliosi permission to quote from his song Piggies in his written account of the case.

Are there any other recorded responses by Harrison or the other Beatles, in interview or elsewhere, on the Manson case?

Silly question, probably. I mean, what on earth could you possibly SAY in response to such crimes and such an outlandish motive?

After the verdict, Lennon was said to remark "well you can syndicate any boat you row."

After the Manson jury delivered Death sentences on all the defendants, Life magazine ran an article entitled "The Manson Jury: End of a Long Ordeal".

The same issue carried an article headlined "Paul McCartney on the Beatles Breakup".

Irreconcilable differences between the group members became apparent, said McCartney, in the course of recording The White Album.

How Manson arrived at The Beatles from his reading of Revelations 9:

1. Four Angels = Four Beatles.

2. Locusts = Beatles. Same thing.

3. Long hair = Beatles cut.

4. Shining breastplates = Electric guitars. (OK, one of them played the drums, but if you're looking for rational consistency you've come to the wrong shop.)

There. Simple when you know how, isn't it?

Killing a prego and blaming it on the negroids=Race War= Armegeddon and the end of suffering for the Believers.
Odd, huh? I believe that Manson is some kind of hero to Stan. Or at least he has some sympathy for him.

And after all these many years the Chicks still are faithful and respectful of the gibberish of Manson.
That either says something about Chicks, the prison system, Manson and his whiley ways, or their inborn hatred of negroids and there love of bottomless pits in the desert.

Just to prove that you can twist just about anything to fit your personal prejudices, the Beatles' song "Rocky Racoon" was interpreted by Manson as a reference to "coons"- i.e. to black people.

The 'chicks' who joined the Family were full of anger and hatred before they met Manson: the products of broken homes who usually had issues with their fathers.

Manson had lived most of his life in institutions and was very aware of people's problems and hang-ups; he had to be in order to survive, and adopted a chameleon-like mask appropriate to each individual he encountered there, as occasion demanded. It wasn't difficult for him to 'read' these 'chicks', to the point where they believed that he could actually inhabit their thoughts.

Manson was himself illegitimate and was periodically abandoned by his promiscuous mother. Bugliosi made the fascinating discovery, late in the trial process, that a file on young Charlie's period of detention in a Youth facility suggested that the father he never knew may have been a black cook named Scott. Look no further for the source of Manson's hostility to blacks.

Hitler, whom Manson greatly admired, was ashamed of the fact that his father was illegitimate and was haunted by the possibility that Jewish blood ran in his veins....

Obviously, one wouldn't want to read too much into this, but:

John Lennon's anger and much of his creativity stemmed from a troubled upbringing. The anger and frustration expressed on certain tracks on The White Album were ripples in this creative pool.

Did they connect on some emotional level with Manson? This seems at least plausible.

Re: Hitler & Nazism

The Manson Family's dune-buggies were stripped down VW's.

They were ridden around Death Valley in emulation of Rommel's Desert War Tactics. Manson kept a military sabre in a sheath in his "Command" Dune Buggy.

Or, as John Cale puts it in "Leaving It Up to You":

I hear the tanks crawling
They're crawling over the hill
They're crawling over the hill
Like rattlesnakes in the desert sun
They're blistering up my spell
They're breaking it up
They're breaking up my spell...

Bugliosi came to believe that Manson had been heavily influenced by a satanist cult known as The Process or The Church of Judgement. He certainly grafted many of its beliefs onto The Family's basic philosophy.